"The Sound of Music" by St. Paul's named outstanding production at CT High School Musical Theater Awards

Dancer-actor-teacher Carmen de Lavallade, 84, will be honored by the Connecticut Critics Circle with the 2015 Tom Killen Award for lifetime achievement in the theater.

De Lavallade taught and performed at the Yale School of Drama and the early days the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven. She will also be performing her solo autobiographical show, "As I Remember It," at New Haven's International Festival of Arts & Ideas later this month.

De Lavallade will receive her tribute at the annual CCC Awards on June 22 at a ceremony beginning 7:30 p.m. at the Iseman Theatre in New Haven. Yale Repertory Theatre is hosting the event honoring the best in the state's theater during the 2014-15 season.

Special Awards will also go to the Summer Theater of New Canaan for its special education project Dramarama; Shawn Boyle for his projection designs for Yale Rep's production of the world premiere of "Elevada," and the New Haven-based Split Knuckle Company for its production of "Endurance."

High School Winners, Part One

"The Sound of Music" by Bristol's St. Paul's Catholic High School was named outstanding production in the annual Connecticut High School Musical Theater Awards presented Monday night at the Palace Theater in Waterbury.

Zac Gottschall who played Horace Vandergelder in Trumbull High School's production of "Hello, Dolly!" won outstanding male leading actor. Chiara Giampietro who played Maria in St. Paul Catholic High School's "The Sound of Music" received top honors as outstanding leading actress. Both students will compete later this month at the National High School Musical Theater Awards in New York City.

New Canaan High School's "Grease" was recognized for its lobby display; Jeffrey Roets of

Wethersfield High School won an arts in education award for "Seussical"; Westhill High's Mickey Sottile won a student achievement award for "Hairspray" and

East Lyme High's Robert Alden, Victoria Chong and Alice Cheng won student achievement awards for "Grease."

Information and a complete list of nominees and winners are on Facebook at Connecticut High School Musical Theater Awards.

Shubert Grants

The Shubert Foundation is giving more than $800,000 in grants to Connecticut's leading theaters, part of its $24 million largess to 488 not-for-profit performing arts organizations in 46 States. For many theaters, the Shubert grants are the most valuable because they are unrestricted and can be used as each arts institution sees fit.

New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre and Hartford Stage will each receive $200,000 while Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven will get $175,000.

Goodspeed Musicals based in East Haddam will see a check for $110,000 and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford will receive will get $85,000. Westport Country Playhouse will receive $30,000 and Hartford's TheaterWorks will get $15,000.

"We are convinced that talented artists and administrators are best able to decide how to use the funds we grant," says foundation president Michael I. Sovern.

Ranging from $10,000 to $325,000, the grants benefit a broad spectrum of arts organizations, from large to small, covering a wide range of locations around the country, from urban to rural. The Shubert Foundation is especially interested in providing support to professional resident theatre and dance companies that develop and produce new American work.

Since the establishment of the Shubert Foundation grants program in 1977, over $360 million has been awarded.

Short Takes

>>Jon Jory, Arvin Brown, Douglas Hughes and Gordon Edelstein — the entire history of artistic directors at New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre — will come together at the theater Sunday, June 7 at 2 p.m. to talk about their tenure at the theater, which is celebrating is 50th anniversary.

>>It's been a while since this trio was back in town together — say about 40 years — so Robert Brustein, Alvin Epstein and Carmen de Lavallade no doubt will have a lot to talk about when they appear on a panel together June 26 at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven. Brustein is the founding artistic director of Yale Repertory Theater and former dean of the Yale School of Drama. Epstein and de Lavallade are performers/professors who joined him at the school and in the early days of Yale Rep, which celebrates its 50th anniversary beginning next year.

>>Speaking of the festival, it has a new director of programming: Chad Herzog, a presenter in the performing arts field. He was director of the performing arts and the curator of the performance series. Chad Herzog will join the festival as its director of programming, starting on June 11. Herzog is a well-regarded presenter in the performing arts field and arrives from Juniata College in Pennsylvania, where he served as the director of the performing arts and the curator of the college's performance series. He will arrive in New Haven for the 20th anniversary of the festival that runs June 12 to 27.

>>Mark Lamos, artistic director at the Westport Country Playhouse, is staging the musical "A Little Night Music" at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre. The show, which just opened, has quite a cast, including Patrick Cassidy, Dana Ivey, Emily Skinner, Paolo Montalban and Karen Ziemba.

>>It was an emotional moment during the opening night of "Good People" at TheatreWorks when Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was brought up from the audience during the curtain call. The cast hadn't been told (and a good thing, too, as if opening nights aren't tense enough). Leading actress Erika Rolfsrud, who was overwhelmed as it was by the enthusiastic audience reception, burst into tears when Lindsay-Abaire came down to embrace her. He was pretty weepy, too, so it appeared that he was touched by the production as well. It was that kind of night.

>>Cabaret singer and actor KT Sullivan (she starred in Goodspeed's "Gentleman Prefer Blondes" in 1995) will perform a June 26 gala at Torrington's Warner Theatre for Greenwoods Counseling Referrals, a mental health association that serves northwestern Connecticut and surrounding areas. Bill Zeffiro (who wrote the book, music and lyrics for "The Road To Ruin: The 1928 Exploitation Musical," ) will accompany Sullivan. Tickets are $125 to $10,000. Information: 860-806-6003 or email: GreenwoodsPresents@gmail.com.